Patriotic hacker behind Wiki attack

Since Sunday, the online site has suffered two computer assaults, each of which has overwhelmed its servers and rendered the site temporarily inaccessible.

Some observers immediately speculated the attacker might be the US government, which has condemned WikiLeaks' posting of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables. Experts said a more likely culprit is a "patriotic" hacker incensed by WikiLeaks' publication of massive amounts of classified government material.

"You have ethical hackers who are really opposed to the notion that you should be the one to decide what information should be disseminated," said Mark D Rasch, a former federal cyber-crime prosecutor and now a security consultant.

A Twitter user whose handle is "Jester" and who has a history of denial-of-service attacks claimed responsibility for the first attack.